Sandelman & Associates released its 2009 Quick-Track Awards of Excellence report, based on feedback from 90,000 customers ranking 140 U.S. fast-food chains on overall satisfaction, taste, speed, and value.
Also the best bumper sticker mods.
You missed #6: Pei Wei.
I don’t know more than half of those chains (Capriotti’s, Raising Cane’s, Pei Wei, Cafe Rio, Idaho Pizza Company, Penn Station–what are all these?) But, yeah, In-N-Out is amazing in terms of quality and customer satisfaction. It’s pretty much the only fast food joint I’ve been in where the workers seemed like they really wanted to be working there. There’s something to be said about that.
I’ve never been that impressed. I mean, they are really good, but I’ve never as impressed as I should be, I think.
I hear about it all the time from people in the LA area.
What do you expect? In addition to great food, they pay very well, promote from within, and generally act like they think their employees are partners rather than peons.
I had to Google over half the list myself.
Dammit! Really makes me appreciate the fine work David Letterman’s writers do, making sure that every top 10 list has 10 items in it.
Never ate at any of these except Panera. It appears the survey is heavily geographically biased.
Further, chains like Five Guys Hamburgers or Red Hot and Blue are much better.
ETA: I see In and Out uses vegetable oil for their fries. This automatically makes them inferior to Five Guys, which uses peanut oil
Raising Cane’s is the most delicious place in the entire world. Oh man. I eat there everytime I’m in Vegas for work.
(Plus, I feel good that the owner is all about dogs and donates tons to animal rescue causes)
Going strictly on taste, I don’t get it. In-N-Out is OK, I guess, but nothing special…
I do like how they treat their employees however.
Good God am I outa touch. I’ve been to the Chick many a time, Panera a couple times, and only sorta recognize the reference to In-N-Out. Everything else is a WTF for me.
And GET OFF MY LAWN!
Hmm, I think I can say I’ve never even seen one of these in my area (KW, Ontario Canada) am I being deprived of really good fast food?
Not that I can really go out for fast food on my diet anyway.
I would not have called Panera “fast food.” Isn’t it more of a sandwich and salad place? No drive thru in any I have seen…
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In-N-Out gives out little packets of hot peppers as part of their “secret” menu. Does anyone know what type they are?
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Chicago-based pizza chain. Their specialty is (no surprise) Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. They’re only in Chicago, plus a few locations in Florida (probably catering to Chicago transplants).
I don’t think they have drive-thrus, no.
They technically fit into a group referred to, in the industry, as “fast casual”, along with places like Chipotle and Boston Market. Even so, it sounds like Sandelman (a research and consultant group which specializes in the restaurant industry) is categorizing “fast casual” with the traditional fast-food places for purposes of this survey.
Typically, the prices in fast casual restaurants are a bit higher than what you’d see in a traditional fast-food restaurant (and, some people consider the food to be a bit better in quality), but fast-casual places don’t have waiters or table service (which differentiates them from a “casual dining” restaurant like Applebee’s, or a “family” restaurant like IHOP or Denny’s).
OTOH, Giordano’s has waiters and table service, so it must be a pretty broad definition which they’re using for this survey.
Well, they’re all in the United States. Headquarters for the top 10 chains are Irvine (California), Las Vegas, Atlanta, Plano (Texas), St. Louis, Scottsdale (Arizona), Chicago, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Cincinatti.
Nah, it’s not age. Most of the chains aren’t national.
This is subjective of course, but In-N-Out makes the best non-gimmicky fast-food burger. They taste good, but there’s more to it than that. The bun, lettuce, onion, tomato, patty, and cheese all have distinct flavor and texture, just like real food! So many fast-food burgers seem to congeal into slimy blobs of uniform taste and consistency before I get to eat them. Plus the restaurants are generallybright and clean, and I’ve never seen a rude or sullen employee.
Of course if you’re in the mood for a burger with bacon or onion rings or something, or a gourmet burger, or even something other than a burger, or if you actually need to get in and out in under five minutes at lunchtime, you may want to go elsewhere.
Specifically, it’s a subset of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza known as “stuffed” pizza, which is different than the original deep-dish style of Pizzeria Uno or other local chains like Lou Malnati’s or Gino’s East, none of which are stuffed pizzas.
Thanks for the explanation. 
I would have considered “fast food” as stuff you can eat in your car.
In and Out does have the best fries though. They actually cut up the potatoes where you can see them. I bet not many other places even have whole potatos as part of the process!
Goin’ way old school!
Actually, I don’t think they’ve put “Burger” on the stickers (at least in large type) in many years because of the people who cut off the B and the r. The owning family is famously Christian, and I’m sure they weren’t fans of that.